Tomorrow's Magazines Tonight: A REPUBLICAN CULTURE OF CORRUPTION

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/8/06 at 8:02pm

TIME Magazine

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1147153-2,00.html

But with the possibility that DeLay could be indicted in the Abramoff case, the Administration fears that the scandal could tarnish all Republicans and even hand the House to the Democrats. "They're worried about the Congress," an adviser said after talking to White House aides, "and they're worried about themselves."...

Bracing for the worst, Administration officials obtained from the Secret Service a list of all the times Abramoff entered the White House complex, and they scrambled to determine the reason for each visit. Bush aides are also trying to identify all the photos that may exist of the two men together. Abramoff attended Hanukkah and holiday events at the White House, according to an aide who has seen the list. Press secretary Scott McClellan said Abramoff might have attended large gatherings with Bush but added, "The President does not know him, nor does the President recall ever meeting him."

And from NEWSWEEK

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10756433/site/newsweek/

With congressional elections coming up, the GOP is scrambling to avoid the label of Party of Corruption. Republican reformers like Sen. John McCain and former Speaker Newt Gingrich are talking about tighter lobbying rules, like barring former representatives from lobbying on the House floor and banning former aides from lobbying for two years, instead of one. The Republicans could conceivably steal a march on the Democrats, who were not exactly pure when they controlled Congress. But the public is likely to remain appropriately skeptical of both parties. According to a Gallup poll taken last month, some 49 percent believe "most members" are corrupt and are about evenly divided over who is more corrupt, Republicans or Democrats.

Even reformers have a price. In 1993, just before the Gingrich Revolution swept the GOP to power in the House, Marshall Wittman, a right-wing activist who later turned centrist, attended a meeting of Americans for Tax Reform, an umbrella group of conservatives making common cause. On the agenda that day was regulation relief for the Mariana Islands. Wittman wondered: when did the Mariana Islands become a conservative issue? Grover Norquist, the head of Americans for Tax Reform, was close to Jack Abramoff. Abramoff would later collect $9 million in fees smoothing the way for members of Congress to take fact-finding trips to the islands and play golf.